Death toll rises to 13 in Canada train derailment

Investigators able to get closer to wreckage

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Officials fear they will find more bodies, now that investigators are able to approach the train wreckage in Quebec.

By Benjamin ShinglerAssociated Press
July 09, 2013

LAC-MEGANTIC, Quebec — The death toll in the horrific oil train derailment in Quebec reached 13 on Monday, while about 40 people remained missing, officials said after investigators finally got near where the runaway train exploded.

Quebec provincial police Sergeant Benoit Richard said Monday that eight more bodies had been found in the wreckage. Police would not say where the bodies were located for fear of upsetting families.

All but one of the train’s 73 tanker cars were carrying oil when they came loose early Saturday, sped downhill nearly 7 miles into the town of Lac-Megantic, near the Maine border, and derailed. At least five of the cars exploded.

The blasts destroyed about 30 buildings, including a public library and a bar that was filled with revelers. Five bodies were found over the weekend.

Richard said inspectors could now go where they needed. Officials had to wait for firefighters to dose the flames and cool the oil tankers that had not exploded.

Investigators had been able to get closer to some of the ‘‘hot spots,’’ such as the area near the destroyed Musi-Cafe, with the help of firefighters, Richard said. ‘‘It’s a zone that we’ve started to work on and we’ll work on it more in the hours to come,’’ he said.

The area remained part of a criminal investigation and that all options were being explored by investigators, including the possibility that someone intentionally tampered with the train, Richard said.

Queen Elizabeth II earlier expressed deep sadness over the disaster Monday, saying in a message through the federal government that the loss of life ‘‘has shocked us all.’’ Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper toured the town Sunday and compared it to a war zone.

The train’s owners said they believed brake failure was to blame.

‘‘Somehow those brakes were released, and that’s what is going to be investigated,’’ Joe McGonigle, Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway’s vice president of marketing, said Sunday.

Officials were also looking at a fire on the locomotive of the same train a few hours before the derailment.

Meanwhile, crews were working to contain 27,000 gallons of light crude that spilled from the tankers and seeped into nearby waterways. There were fears it could flow into the St. Lawrence River all the way to Quebec City.

Quebec’s Environment Ministry spokesman Eric Cardinal said officials remained hopeful they could contain more than 85 percent of the spill.

The heart of the town of about 6,000 was leveled — including a popular bar where several dozen revelers were believed to have been at the time of the explosions. About a third of the community was forced out of their homes.

Sophie L’Heureux, a manager at the bar, was woken up at home by the explosion. She said she believed there were about 50 people in the bar, including many close friends.

‘‘I’m in survival mode right now. My priority is to try to sleep if I can, eat if I can,’’ she said. ‘‘For the rest, it’s one minute, one day at a time.’’

Raymond Lafontaine, who believed he lost three members of his family, including his son, said he was angry with what appeared to be lack of safety regulations.

‘‘We always wait until there’s a big accident to change things,’’ he said. ‘‘Well, today we’ve had a big accident, it’s one of the biggest ever in Canada.’’

Fire chief Denis Lauzon said firefighters in a nearby community were called to the locomotive blaze a few hours before the derailment. Lauzon said he could not provide additional details about that fire since it was in another jurisdiction.

McGonigle confirmed that a fire was reported after the first engineer tied up and went to a local hotel.

‘‘We know that one of our employees from our engineering department showed up at the same time to assist the fire department. Exactly what they did is being investigated so the engineer wasn’t the last man to touch that train, we know that, but we’re not sure what happened,’’ McGonigle said.

There was no reason to suspect any criminal or terror-related activity, McGonigle said.

Lafontaine said the government needs to take a hard look at the risks of transporting oil by train — especially through communities.

‘‘It’s not hard to understand,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s dangerous. It’s like an atomic bomb.’’

Transportation Safety Board investigator Donald Ross said the black box of the locomotive has been recovered.

The growing number of trains transporting crude oil in Canada and the United States had raised concerns of a major disaster, and this derailment was sure to bolster arguments that a proposed oil pipeline would be safer.

The train’s oil was being transported from North Dakota’s Bakken region to a refinery in New Brunswick on Canada’s East Coast.